Chronic neural implants, such as drug delivery devices, diagnostic sensors or neural probes, ideally minimize detrimental tissue responses and impairment of neural function throughout the entire implantation life of the implant. This challenge is particularly critical for neural probes, which are implanted in neural tissue and include electrodes that interface with biological host neurons. The recording and stimulation performance of currently available neural probes and devices including them decreases over time when chronically implanted for long-term clinical applications. Thus, a need exists for improved neural probes and devices incorporating such probes for chronic implantation and long-term clinical application to facilitate recording and stimulation performance that is more reliably maintained for prolonged periods of time.